Boat Breakdown

pluto2 · Newbie Joined: 30 May 2011 Posts: 34 City: Destin

So I was riding behind the family's boat today,

about 2 minutes into the first run the engine died and would not restart. Temp and oil pressure were normal before the shutdown. No abnormal "clanking" sounds when it happened. Starter is able to turn the engine over w/o any abnormal sounds but the engine does not catch. Fuel pump sounds good, and all the various connections around the motor look good.

Specs:
2001 MC X30
350 red top engine

We are inclined to think that it is an electrical problem. Maybe the ECU? seeing how it was running fine and then suddenly died.

Any ideas? and no I don't want to hear "its probably bc its an MC"

On a fun note my father and I had to swim it 1/4 a mile back to the dock, which isn't too bad. Our record is 3/4 a mile.

cheers

jayshonsykes · Newbie Joined: 25 Feb 2011 Posts: 17

You should get a Wakesetter. It's probably because it's a Mastercraft.

shonuff · Criminal Joined: 23 Aug 2010 Posts: 58 City: Atlanta

Did you check the killswitch? Sometimes the killswitch can still look like its clipped in but it actually slipped just enough to disable the engine. This happened to me yesterday and we were about to get the oars out until I double checked the killswitch.

wakemads · Posted: Jun 27, 2011 4:57 am Post subject:

yep that sounds like the kill switch.

Oasis137 · Addict Joined: 21 Aug 2005 Posts: 687 City: J-Town

pluto2, man that is a weird coincidence. The exact same thing happened to my boat yesterday. The boat was running fine, then when I wanted to take it out later it would easily turnover but the engine wouldnt catch. The engine is getting gas and air, and the killswitch was covered. Still waiting to see what the problem is. I'm guessing a bad spark plug possibly. Good luck with yours

jmlloyd · Criminal Joined: 20 May 2010 Posts: 61

I too, would check that the kill switch did not get knocked off just enough..... Other than that it sounds like fuel flow. I had a similar problem a few years back and i had some debri clogging the fuel line. Good luck....

pluto2 · Newbie Joined: 30 May 2011 Posts: 34 City: Destin

Ok, well spoke to my father, apparently the boat started up once after it died. When it did, it spun up immediately to 3 rpm and died (w/o giving it gas). I didn't know that because I was some number of feet behind the boat when it happened becuase I was getting pulled at the time.

Kill switch circuit is complete (when we disconect the killswitch our red check engine light doesn't turn on when we put the key into the on position). Pretty sure we have good fluel flow, but we are going to disconnect the fuel lines and see if fuel is squirting out just to be sure.

could have the same thing jmlloyd had since we hear our fuel pump turning on and giving the line positive flow when we first turn the key, but the lines could be clogged. In the past our fuel pump died and it was a pain to change out. We have only taken the boat to a mechanic once since don't have a trailer, so most of these things we have to figure out and take care of ourselves.

I'm going to re-check the killswitch today but we are pretty confident thats not the problem.

Thanks for the help so far, but any other ideas?

Oasis - I would think that your problem would not be a spark plug issue, since if it was the engine should still run off the other remaining cylinders. It would just be rough at idle. Unless 3 or more of your spark plugs died at once. (assuming your engine has more than 2-4 cylinders)

pet575 · Posted: Jun 27, 2011 8:53 am Post subject:

Verify that the fuel filter is not obstructed or that you don't have water in the gas?

pluto2 · Newbie Joined: 30 May 2011 Posts: 34 City: Destin

it is very possible the fuel filter is obstructed, but it is the pain from hell to get to it (for us). Plus we have years of other little problems that we have been unable to fix w/o a shop so I think the plan is to borrow our friend's trailer and bring it to a shop that we trust.

The trailer we are going to use is for a super air natique that is roughly the same size and weight as our mc. No problems with inter-racial trailering right?